International Summer Academy selects 12 award winners
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Last Saturday, after four intensive weeks under the artistic direction of Hannfried Lucke, the International Summer Academy 2024 came to a very successful end with 55 masterclasses, 13 additional courses and 66 concerts. 550 participants from 53 nations (average age 21) were guests in Salzburg. Twelve up-and-coming artists were honoured and each received 1,000 euros in prize money donated by the City of Salzburg's Cultural Fund.
The prizewinners 2024:
Xianmei Fang, organ (China), class H. Lucke (engagement by the Mozarteum Foundation in December 2024 in the "Organ at Lunch" series)
Anna Csuvár, flute (Hungary), class M. Gauci-Ancelin
Jeconiah Retulla, baritone (Philippines), class M. Diaz (member of the Opernstudio Niederrhein at the Krefeld Mönchen Gladbach Theatre from the 2024/25 season)
Emma Hartikainen, soprano and Tanja Niiranen, piano (Finland), class C. Strehl & P. Tukiainen
Xinwei Li, soprano (China), class J. Perry
Iordachi Ştefan, violoncello (Romania), class V. Radutiu
Laura-Katharina Handler, violin (Germany), class Z. Tadevosyan
Joseph Yourong Cai, piano (HongKong), class P. Ovtcharov
Chaokai Li, piano (China), class A. Weber
Stepan Polishchuk, baritone (Ukraine), class J. Thomasson
Ibuki Yoneoka, violin (Japan), class M. Vaiman (worldwide concert activity with the Juilliard String Quartet)
Sara Dragan, violin (Poland), class Z. Bron (up-and-coming international violinist with concert engagements in major concert halls worldwide)
38 students also received 15,000 euros in partial scholarships from generous sponsors of the International Summer Academy.
The reasons for taking part in the International Summer Academy Mozarteum are diverse and range from international flair to a good and intensive working atmosphere and preparation for a degree programme (including at the Mozarteum University), as the participants told us:
"I am so glad that I was given the opportunity to take part in the Mozarteum Summer Academy. [...] Studying here for a week means a lot to me ..." (Stepan, voice, Ukraine)
"It's my first time to attend Summer Academy and it was absolutely perfect. [...] Thank you for all who effort for this Academy and I hope to see you next year too!" (Kate, piano, USA)
"The additional courses focusing on musician health were a true highlight! I recently took an incredible course titled "Body and Breath", [...] This kind of training is essential not only for singers and musicians but for everyone. It's an indispensable tool for achieving greater self-awareness and improvement. Highly recommended!" (Chen, singing, Israel)
The lecturers 2024:
Christian Altenburger, Daniel Auner, Moritz Bergfeld, Zakhar Bron, Ya-Fei Chuang, Michèle Crider, Mario Diaz, Barbara Doll, Andreas Frölich, Annelie Gahl, Matthieu Gauci-Ancelin, Alexander Gilman, Michaela Girardi, Martin Grubinger, Kilian Herold, Christopher Hinterhuber, Christian Immler, Mauro Iurato, Ji Hye Jung, Peter Lang, Robert Levin, Hannfried Lucke, Orfeo Mandozzi, Silvia Marcovici, Arnold Marinissen, Pumeza Matshikiza, Lei Meng, Leonel Morales, Peter Ovtcharov, Janet Perry, Igor Petrushevski, Rolf Plagge, Mikhail Pochekin, Valentin Radutiu, Thomas Riebl, Rafael Rosenfeld, Andreas Schmidt, Connie Shih, Christoph Strehl, Zohrab Tadevosyan, Zhe Tang, John Thomasson, Weidong Tong, Kirill Troussov, Pauliina Tukiainen, Michael Vaiman, Arie Vardi, Jan Jiracek von Arnim, Andreas Weber, Johannes Wilhelm, Konstantin Zelenin and Zheng Zhou.